A Stark Love

Demetri stared out the window as his driver pulled into the familiar drive way of the Stark home. The mansion was built in a deserted field; as if someone plucked it from a kingdom and slapped it there. It looked very out of place for such a large open area. The mansion had an arc of trees surrounding behind it, the grass swaying before it like waves in the ocean. The driver pulled up to the front stair case, getting out of the car quickly to open the door for Demetri. As the driver held the door open, Demetri took in a deep breath, stepping out and walking up the front steps to the door. Each stop brought back a memory from his childhood that pulled at his heart. The field that they once played in, the steps where she fell and broke her arm, the house that cradled his love for her. It all started the day they first met here.

The door swung open a guard dressed in a black suit, “Mr. Grey, do come in.” He grinned lightly as he stepped back to allow room for Demetri. The gentleman shut the door behind Demetri as he stood, awkwardly, in the foyer on the mansion, “Please, this way.” The man led him to through the large family area, his mind replaying memories of when he first laid eyes on Sonja. The couch their mother’s sat on as he introduced himself to her. He pulled his gaze from it as they walked up to the patio doors, voices and laughter coming from it. Demetri immediately stopped before they neared the open patio doors: it was her. She was in the field, her chestnut hair whirling around her as she picked up another child to swing them around. She was laughing. Her eyes full of love and joy as she fell to the ground, dizzy, with the small child on her.

“Mr. Grey? Is everything alright?” the man asked.

Demetri nodded his head slowly, “It’s fine.” He walked past the man, heading through the open patio doors. He took in a deep breath as he watched her, straightening his suit as he took his first step towards her. “Demetri!” He looked over to his mother, her arms stretched wide as she ran to him, pulling him into a tight hug, “My beautiful boy! I’m so happy you made it!” The others all turned their head to look at him, his face turning a light pink as he kissed his mother’s cheek quickly before freeing himself from her embrace, “Thank you, Mother.” Sonja picked herself up from the ground, standing a few feet from the patio in the grass with the children. She looked shocked to see him, her smile faint and half-hearted before she turned to focus her attention back on the children. “Demetri, thank you for coming. We’ve missed you so.” It was Elena, Sonja’s mother. She hugged him lightly, kissing his cheek, “It’s been so long.”

Demetri began to feel a strong tang of guilt as he looked in her eyes, “It has. I’m sorry I haven’t been to visit sooner. The business absorbs much of my time.” She nodded, understanding, as she cupped her hand to his face, “Of course, Darling. We’re just so happy that you could make it today. Welcome home.” Demetri smiled shyly as he nodded, thanking her. Sonja’s brothers surrounded Demetri talking about business and catching up on each other’s lives. Demetri did his best to look between them to take a glimpse of her. Roderick was now in the field with Sonja, his arm wrapped around his daughters shoulder as they spoke. They both looked back to the group of men before looking at each other. Roderick cupped his daughter’s face, kissing her forehead as he nudged her to the group of men.

Demetri’s eyes widened as he watched her slowly climb the patio steps towards him. He relaxed slightly as he quickly scanned his eyes over her: Her hair was longer, ending just above her waist. She was wearing a simple pair of jean shorts and a white tank top – shoe less. He smiled lightly as he took in the sight of her – She was beautiful. Simple. Her. Sonja tapped the shoulder of her brother, Lucca, asking for entry into the circle of men. Lucca and the other men turned to look at her, dispersing quickly to give them a moment together. Demetri and Sonja stood in front of one another awkwardly, just as they had done years ago. “Mr. Grey.” Sonja whispered, a soft smile on her face. Demetri’s eyes glistened as he smiled softly at her, “Miss. Stark.” He felt a pull in his chest as he watched her face intently. Her eyes shined brightly up at him, no hurt or pain appearing at him like that of his nightmares.

“Glad to see you could join us. Hope the flight over wasn’t too awful for you.” Sonja said simply. Demetri nodded, smiling shyly, “It was pretty dreadful, but worth it.” Sonja smiled softly, looking away from him for a moment, “Good to see you, Grey.” Demetri opened his mouth to talk as Sonja turned quickly and walked back to the side of her Father as they talked with her twin brother’s Caius and Elias. Demetri slowly pressed his lips into a hard line as he turned around to the loud squeal of his Mother, “Dinner is ready! Everyone inside!” The group followed after her taking their assigned seats, placed carefully by the butler. Demetri sat directly in front of Sonja as was usual for whenever they came to their home to eat. They were sat in order of age, and since he and Sonja were technically the youngest, they always sat across from the other at the end of the table.

Roderick stood at the head of the table, tapping his wine glass with his knife, “Attention, you heathens.” The table laughed, his wife shaking her head at him, “I wanted to just say how happy I am to have the entire family here.” His eyes skimming over to Demetri, “It means so much to see this table full of the people we”, smiling over to his wife and the Grey’s, “love the most. To family.” The group raised their glasses each taking a sip as the servants came out with their plates of food. The table boomed with laughter and conversation as they all ate the carefully, beautifully prepared food in front of them. “So how’s the business, Dem?” Caius asked, a grin on his face. Demetri shook his head at Caius’s grin, laughing lightly, “It’s great. Everything is great.” Elias, sitting next to Demetri, nudged him, “Oh, come on, Mr. Hot Shot. You have to give us more than that.”

Sonja looked up at him, watching the three, as she silently at her food. Demetri looked up at her, gauging her reaction before swallowing his food to speak, “We have a lot of clients now. I’ve paid off all my investors who now are partners to the company. It really is great – lots of business meetings and stuff. Relatively boring, I suppose, in hindsight.” Caius and Elias’s laughter boomed, similar to their Father’s as they listened, “Dull and quiet – suits you.” Elias playfully said as he slapped Demetri’s back. Sonja smiled, suppressing a laugh herself as she looked back to her plate to cut bits of potato. Caius put an arm around Sonja, “Unlike our baby sister here – Her exhibit is selling like that!” He snapped his fingers with the arm draped over Sonja’s shoulders, “All that hard work finally is paying off, Little Fox.” Caius kissed the side of her head, smiling at her as he went back to cutting his steak.

Demetri raised his slender brow as he looked between them, “Exhibit?” Sonja glanced up at him, seemingly nervous, before putting more potato in her mouth to excuse her from talking. “Yeah,” Elias looked over at him confused, a mouthful of food, “Her art exhibit? You know, the whole..” He waved his hand in the air searching for the word, “Gallery thing. She has all her pieces displayed over there. People are buying them so quickly she had to make more so they wouldn’t rip her apart.” The two boys laughed, mirror images of each other, as they shook their head. Demetri stayed quiet as he looked over at her, “I didn’t know you had your own gallery.” Sonja swallowed her food and nodded, “Well...now you know.” She smiled faintly, picking up her glass of wine, sipping the contents a little too quickly.

Demetri exhaled softly as Caius and Elias momentarily paused their eating to watch the two of them. They both glanced to one another and shrugged, continuing the carnage to the contents on their plate. As everyone finished their meals, the group separated: Demetri’s older brothers and the Stark men all inside joking and playing video games with their nieces and nephews, the parents together in the large living room with them as they watched lovingly, and Sonja sitting outside behind the patio, resting in the soft grass. Demetri looked through the glass walls that shared the view of the patio, watching her hair sway with the light, warm breeze. He pushed of the frame of the door in the large room everyone was in to walk towards the patio.

As he stepped out, slowly unbuttoning his suit jacket, the warm breeze kissed and caressed his skin as if to welcome him home. Sonja sat in the grass, hugging her knees to her chest, chin resting on them as she shut her eyes relaxing with the breeze. Demetri slowly walked down the patio steps to her, carefully placing his suit jacket on the ground to sit on top of it. “Miss. Stark.” He said simply as he laid his right leg flat on the ground, his left bent up to rest his arm on top of his knee. Sonja opened her eyes slowly and looked over to him, strands of her hair darting across her face, “Mr. Grey.” Demetri let out a slow exhale as he stared at her, memorizing every bit of her face and the moment.

“What are you doing here, Dem?”

Demetri sat back, slightly taken off guard as he pondered her question, “For dinner.” Sonja shut her eyes for a moment, sighing as she turned her focus from him to the ocean of grass before them. He studied her face, watching her bit her lip out of nervousness, desperately wanting to pull it from her and wrap his own lips around it. “It’s been nearly six years. We’ve invited you countless times – but now you want to come for dinner. Why now?” She said simply. There was no anger or fury within her words, just simple observations and questions regarding his presence at their home. Demetri took in a short breath, his brow furrowing, “Why didn’t you tell me you had an art gallery?”

She jerked her head over to look at him, shaking her head, slightly confused, “Because..? I don’t know? You’re busy with your empire. I didn’t think that my gallery was of any importance to you.” She shrugged her shoulders lightly, turning away from him once more, “They’re just pointless circles and doodles.” She whispered. Demetri winced, his teeth clenching as her words cut through the air like blades. She remembered. He was hoping she wouldn’t bring anything up - at least not at this point. “They…” Demetri raked his hand through his hair, becoming frustrated, “They aren’t just circles. You have a talent. You should have told me. That’s a really big deal, Sonja.” She eyed him, eyebrow raised, “Are you seriously going to get angry with me for not telling you about my gallery?” He cut his eyes at her, his frustration evident, “You couldn’t have sent an e-mail? That made me look completely foolish in front of your brothers.”

Sonja rolled her eyes at him, “Yeah. Cause you’re so good at responding to e-mails, right?” Demetri’s body stilled as he stared at her. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. How dare she? All that time that he spent writing her e-mails and she was going to claim how he never responds? “How about you learn to respond to some damn e-mails and we’ll tackle mine later.” Demetri stood up abruptly, his blood boiling as he snatched up his suit jacket. Sonja looked up at him, completely in shock, “Excuse me?!” Demetri walked away from her, deeper into the field, not wanting his parents and the rest of the family to see him so furious. Sonja leaped up as she ran around to face him, “What are you talking about? How can you come here and start getting angry at me for not telling you about my gallery AND your lack of e-mail courtesy?” Demetri stopped, his chest rising and falling, “For one, you could have said at least something to me about the gallery. That is a huge deal – something I should know. And secondly,” He stepped closer to her, his face contorted with anger, “I’m not the one who needs a lesson on e-mail courtesy – you are.”

He pushed her to the side lightly as he continued to walk through the field. Sonja ran up next to him, her hand grabbing his bicep as she yanked him towards her, turning him to face her again. “What are you talking about?” Sonja’s eyes were full of confusion and rage. Demetri studied her face, jaw clenched as he shook his head, “I wrote you every day for nearly five months and you said nothing. I tried to find out if you made it back safe. I called your phone, I e-mailed you, I sent you letters – and I got nothing in return. Why didn’t you write me? Why didn’t you at least give me that much fucking courtesy?” Sonja shook her head slowly as she took a step back, “You wrote me?” Her gaze softened as she replayed his words in her head. Demetri relaxed, his heart plunging to his stomach, “Yes, I wrote you. You got them didn’t you?”

Sonja shook her head slowly, arms folding across her chest as she bit her lip, “I don’t have anything from you. I never received any of it. What…When… I mean, where did you send them?” Demetri could feel his chest swell as he gazed at her. She never knew? How is that even possible? “I used your university e-mail – the one we always used? The letters were sent to your apartment? How could you not have received them?” Sonja shut her eyes, shoulders relaxing as she shook her head once more, “Don’t you remember me telling you I couldn’t use my university e-mail? It stops working once you graduate. The letters I never received at all – maybe Rachel threw them out…” She talked more to herself then to him with her last comment as she searched her memory. Demetri sighed thinking of her overprotective best friend, “And why would she do that?” Sonja tilted her head, her lips in a hard line, “Why do you think?”

Demetri raked his hands through his hair once more weighing her words, “I don’t remember you telling me about your e-mail, but it’s likely with the early start of the business-” She sighed, rolling her eyes lightly, “Wasn’t important enough to remember, yeah, got it.” Demetri watched her reaction, his eyes soft yet stern as he moved to her, his fingers tilting her chin up, “You were always the most important part in my life.” The words glided out of his mouth before he could think. Sonja searched his eyes, her gaze slightly confused and relieved all at once. “Dem…” she whispered. He leaned his face closer to hers, taking in the sight of her eyes and face, “Sunny, I-”

“Hey, you two! Come inside! We’re having dessert!” Elias yelled waving at them.

Demetri pulled his head back quickly as they both looked over to Elias. “We’re coming!” Sonja yelled back, her face flushed as she tried to steady her breathing. “We should go.” She whispered, biting her lip nervously. Demetri’s eyes softened as he moved closer to her, “Sonja, wait I-” Sonja shook her head, arms tightening across her chest as she stepped backwards, “Elias is waiting, Dem.” She turned on her heel and darted back over to Elias, his arm around her shoulders as he looked back to Demetri, “Let’s go, Grey!” Demetri stood for another moment before he trudged back to the house. There was so much he wanted to say to her, so much that could be fixed now – if she would let him. Her actions spoke louder than her words – she still cared for Demetri, just as he did for her.

As Demetri sat in his assigned spot at the table, everyone picking at the cheesecake in front of them, he watched her intently. Sonja continued to eat her dessert, glancing at him every now and again, as she laughed and smiled with her family. Demetri showed no emotion on his face as he tried to take in every second of her before he would leave that night. She shifted uncomfortable in her seat as she glared at him, “Stop.” She mouthed to him. His constant staring must have irritated her. He shook his head, trying to rid him of the hold she had on him, as their plates were taken away.

Demetri stood on the front steps of the Stark home saying his good-bye’s to his family and close friends. “You take care of yourself now. Don’t take another six years to come see us.” Roderick said, smiling as he hugged him tight. Demetri nodded, a little shy still to be hugged by others outside of his mother and father, “Of course, Mr. Stark.” The group bid their farewells as they retreated back inside the house leaving him alone with Sonja. She walked over to him, arms crossed, “Thank you for coming – I know your mother is just overjoyed by it.” Demetri nodded his head slowly, “I know, but she isn’t really the reason I came out here.” Sonja shook her head, looking away from him, “Don’t, Dem.” His face contorted, pained by her words, “Don’t do what?”

Sonja dropped her arms to her side, motioning between them, “This. Just don’t. I’m happy you came. It’s nice knowing things are so well for you, but just…just don’t.” Demetri swallowed his saliva, trying to clear his throat as he watched her, “Fine.” Sonja looked up at him, her eyes soft, as her shoulders slumped forward, “It’s so good to see you, Dem.” He nodded slowly, his hand reaching up to caress her cheek, “You too, Sunny.” She tilted her head into his hand momentarily before backing away from him, out of reach, “Goodnight, Mr. Grey.” Demetri’s arm dropped to his side, a new frustration brewing, “Goodnight, Miss. Stark.”

He walked quickly down the steps of the house and into his awaiting vehicle. Sonja watched as the car door shut, the driver running around and pulling away from the home. Demetri let his head fall back on the seat as he shut his eyes tightly.

You were always the most important part of my life.

His eyes fluttered open at his own words to her. They were all true. He meant each syllable. Seeing her again, hearing her laugh, feeling her so close to him – it reminded him of how much he had missed her. The formation of his company was an obstacle to keep busy – to distract him from feeling anything more. Demetri slid his phone out of his pocket, unlocking the screen as his finger loomed over the call button. He tapped it lightly, pressing the phone to his ear, “Lizette, I need you to send something for me.” He sighed harshly as he waited for her to find a pen and paper, her voice groggy from the disruption in her slumber, “To who?” Demetri looked out the window as the moon followed the car, its light shining through on to his face, “Sonja Stark.”